Joe Taylor, Musician and ‘He’s a Cowboy Auctioneer’ Writer, Dies at 89

Joe Taylor, who penned the Tex Ritter hit 'He's a Cowboy Auctioneer,' passed away in his Avilla, Ind. home on Thursday. He was 89-years-old.

Taylor's life marked work with names like Ernest Tubb, the Everly Brothers, Bill Anderson, and Johnny Cash -- and even spawned a daughter, Paula Jo Taylor, to the country music scene in Nashville.

The late singer's country band, Joe Taylor and the Red Birds, was a household name until the end, especially around Indiana. Fellow Red Bird Patty Corbat, also Taylor's sister-in-law, says that the famed country star signed autographs for a woman even while bedridden in the hospital. “They rolled him over to her room, and he sang to her," she remarks.

She notes that he was easily noticed by the legendary Steve Wariner on a trip to the Grand Ole Opry. Taylor attempted to introduce himself to Wariner, who allegedly stopped him and said, “I know who you are: You’re Joe Taylor." He then told Taylor and his sister-in-law that as a kid, he remembers being pulled onstage by the Indiana singer at a show in Angola.

Taylor will be remembered at a funeral service set for this Thursday in Fort Wayne.